A collection of Tom's articles and other news from Tom's Fitness and Martial Arts in Paris, IL.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

BIGGEST LOSER "21" -- WEEK ONE: "GETTING STARTED"

This marks the end of Week One for Biggest Loser "21" so now we're really underway! They completed their initial weigh-in, assessment, and fitness testing a week ago, and it was pretty eye-opening. They did a minute each of push-ups, body squats, and sit-ups, and a minute of Mountain Climbers, Burpees, Kettlebell Swings, Battle Rope, and Ball Smacks.

A minute of the basics is tough enough, but a minute of the advanced exercises is very hard, even for experienced people. For most of them, 30 seconds did them in, but it will get much easier after 12 weeks of training.

You know how it is when you start something new that you've been really wanting to do? You're excited about the new beginning and all the possibilities. But you're also a little nervous, wondering if you can do it, and you don't want to mess it up.

That's typically how it is for the first group workout, but it went fine. They started with a five minute cardio warmup, and then did 10 minutes of Interval Training (a minute of cardio where you really push, followed by a minute where you back off to recover).

We took a little break to look at their daily calorie logs and talk about getting their food intake right. Most men eat too much, and most women don't eat enough. The trick is getting what you need. So we worked on creating a daily calorie deficit that will let them burn fat for fuel.

Women tend to do very well around 1,500-1,650 calories a day, and most men will lose weight at around 2,000-2,400 calories a day. This will give them enough to feel satisfied, and fuel their day, including workouts.

Finally, we jumped into a 13-station full body circuit. Machines are a pretty good way to get started because they're simple and safe. Later, they'll transition to dumbbells and free weights where they'll have to control and guide the weights.

This time, they did all 13 machines with a weight they could keep doing for a minute. If it got too difficult, they lowered the amount of weight. After a minute, they quickly moved to the next station, which worked a different group of muscles. It only took about 15 minutes, raising their total workout time to just a half hour.

Next week, we'll modify their workouts to increase the level of difficulty, and start working on how to put good meals together. I'll give you updates from time-to-time in case you'd like to follow along!